Acer Liquid Jade Primo review: Windows Prime

Display

The Acer Liquid Jade Primo is equipped with a 5.5-inch FullHD display, and the math results in a 401ppi pixel density. It's an AMOLED panel, which makes the live tiles really pop out on the default black backgrounds. The Diamond Pentile subpixel arrangement is par for the course with such displays.

The Jade Primo posted an okay maximum brightness at 372 nits - AMOLEDs don't typically fly high in this respect. Black pixels are kept unlit, thus contrast is infinite, which can otherwise be classified as excellent. What is rather disastrous is the minimum level of brightness. The Jade Primo's lowest setting results is 70nits, which potentially could be eye-poking in a dark environment.

With an average DeltaE of 5.8, the Jade Primo is a decent performer when it comes to color rendering accuracy, but it's not what you'd call properly calibrated - a value lower than 3 is an indication of that. Still, those are truer colors than Samsung's latest flagships produce in default mode, though admittedly they can achieve truly excellent results in other modes, which however lack here. Unlike on the Lumias, there is no way to tune the color rendering or the screen color temperature on the Jade Primo.

AMOLED is typically a great recipe for outdoor visibility and we expected the Jade Primo to ace that test. Indeed it did good, on par with the Lumia 950, but that's not exceptional performance for an AMOLED panel.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  4.615
• Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
  4.439
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  4.376
• HTC One A9
  4.274
• Samsung Galaxy A3
  4.241
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  4.124
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  4.09
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4.019
• OnePlus X
  3.983
• Oppo R7s
  3.964
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)
  3.918
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.895
• Samsung Galaxy J7 outdoor
  3.879
• Samsung Galaxy J2 outdoor
  3.873
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3.859
• Apple iPhone 6
  3.838
• Microsoft Lumia 950XL
  3.837
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016)
  3.817
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  3.816
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016)
  3.789
• Apple iPhone 6s
  3.783
• Meizu Pro 5
  3.781
• Microsoft Lumia 650
  3.772
• Vivo X5Pro
  3.706
• Samsung Galaxy A7
  3.679
• BlackBerry Priv
  3.645
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  3.53
• Acer Jade Primo
  3.521
• Microsoft Lumia 950
  3.512
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3.499
• Samsung Galaxy J7
  3.422
• Meizu MX5
  3.416
• Oppo R7
  3.32
• Samsung Galaxy J2
  3.235
• Motorola Moto X Play
  3.222
• Lenovo Vibe Shot
  3.113
• LG Nexus 5X
  3.092
• Huawei Mate S
  3.073
• Microsoft Lumia 640 XL
  3.065
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3.023
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.97
• Huawei Mate 8
  2.949
• LG G5
  2.905
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2.876
• Microsoft Lumia 550
  2.851
• Sony Xperia Z5 compact
  2.784
• LG V10
  2.744
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2.735
• Sony Xperia M5
  2.69
• Xiaomi Mi 4i
  2.641
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2.574
• Microsoft Lumia 640
  2.563
• Oppo F1
  2.528
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2.525
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  2.503
• Motorola Moto G
  2.477
• Huawei G8
  2.471
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Huawei Honor 7
  2.406
• ZUK Z1 by Lenovo
  2.382
• LG G4
  2.317
• HTC One E9+
  2.305
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  2.272
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• Lenovo Vibe K4 Note
  2.254
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2.253
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (MediaTek)
  2.249
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2.235
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  2.234
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  2.233
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• Huawei P8
  2.196
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 2
  2.166
• OnePlus Two
  2.165
• HTC One X
  2.158
• LG Aka
  2.145
• Archos 50 Diamond
  2.134
• Xiaomi Redmi Note
  2.119
• Huawei P8lite
  2.078
• Moto G 3rd gen max manual
  2.026
• Sony Xperia E4g
  1.972
• OnePlus One
  1.961
• Meizu m2 note
  1.892
• BlackBerry Leap
  1.892
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• ZTE Nubia Z9 mini
  1.759
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Asus Zenfone Selfie
  1.68
• Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen)
  1.675
• ZTE Nubia Z9
  1.659
• Motorola Moto E
  1.545
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.311
• Sony Xperia C
  1.283
• Meizu MX
  1.221

Connectivity

The Liquid Jade Primo is a dual-SIM device, with 2G cellular connectivity on both cards, and 3G/4G on one of them (defined in settings). The second SIM slot is shared with the microSD slot - you can't have both SIMs and a microSD in at the same time. The supported LTE is of Cat. 6 for theoretical speeds of 300Mbps down and 50Mbps up.

You get Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot support. There's GPS with A-GPS, and Bluetooth 4.0, but no FM radio.

One of the best bits about Windows 10 is Continuum - the ability to transform your smartphone into a desktop of sorts just by connecting to an external display and adding peripherals. The Acer Liquid Jade Primo is one of select few smartphones that can do it for the time being - you only have to use the dedicated dock Acer D01, which supposedly will be sold separately. The dock provides power and wired connectivity options, but more on than in the dedicated chapter.

Acer Liquid Jade Primo battery life

A rather modest 2,800mAh battery powers the Acer Liquid Jade Primo. The Lumia 950 has a full 3,000mAh worth of juice, for a smaller (admittedly higher-res) display and same chipset.

The tests didn't really confirm our initial specsheet-based worries, and one area even delivered a pleasant surprise. You can go ahead and call the Primo's endurance in video playback excellent. Thirteen full hours on a 5.5-inch FullHD display with such a small battery is downright impressive. For reference, the Lumia 950 is good for less than 10 hours in this test.

Surfing the web, the Jade Primo can last you 7 and a half hours, on par with the Lumia 950 - not really record breaking, but a number we could learn to live with. Microsoft's offering does disappointingly in voice calls (8:25h), while the Liquid Jade Primo would keep on going for 14h - not exceptional, more like average.

With an overall endurance rating of 56h, the Acer Liquid Jade Primo is just average with the notable exception of exemplary video playback longevity.

Our proprietary rating denotes the number of hours the phone will be operational if you are to make an hour of 3G talks, web browsing and video playback per day. Such usage pattern is of course somewhat artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.

The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.